Health Hazard Evaluation Report: HETA-88-001-1995: Broward County Library; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Details

• Personal Author:
  Elliott, Larry J. ; Gupta, Suresh ; Sinks, Thomas H.
• Corporate Authors:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Description:
  In response to a request from the Director of Libraries in Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, an evaluation was undertaken of possible poor air quality in the Main Library Building (SIC-8231). The building was eight stories high, and about 300 county employees worked in this building. Soon after the building was opened in April of 1984, workers began to complain of eye and upper airway irritation, difficulty in breathing and headaches. Particularly on the fifth floor, where government documents were housed, the employees suffered allergy like symptoms. Some documents had visible growths of mold on their covers. The building had repeated problems with the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, and numerous rainwater leaks occurred. All air samples collected for viable aerosols contained very low counts of mold, and no thermophilic or mesophilic actinomycetes were found. Formaldehyde was found in air samples at levels from less than 0.01 to 0.07 parts per million. Measurements were taken of temperature, relative humidity, and carbon-dioxide (124389). The carbon-dioxide measurements in some places in the library approached the point which indicated that inadequate quantities of fresh air were being distributed to an occupied space. The authors conclude that the employees' symptoms were not the result of exposure to molds released through the ventilation system. However, the work with historical documents did appear to be related with the health complaints of the workers. The authors recommend measures to improve the air quality of the building.
• Subjects:
  Air Pollution, Indoor Environmental Health Environmental Monitoring Occupational Health Safety Ventilation Workplace
• Keywords:
  Air-quality-monitoring Closed-building-syndrome Formaldehyde Hazard-Unconfirmed HETA-88-001-1995 Historical Documents Indoor-air-pollution Indoor-environmental-quality Indoor Air Quality Libraries And Information Centers Library Microorganisms Mold NIOSH-Author NIOSH-Health-Hazard-Evaluation NIOSH-Technical-Assistance-Report Office-workers OSHA Region 4 Ventilation-systems Viable Aerosol Sampling Workplace-studies

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• Series:
  Health Hazard Evaluation Reports (HHE)
• Subseries:
  Health Evaluation and Technical Assistance (HETA)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.26616/NIOSHHETA880011995
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Field Study
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  30 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Gorman, Richard ; Newman, Mary ; Dillavou, Clayton ; Morris, Linda ; McGraw, Patricia
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:00193973
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB90-193160
• Citation:
  Cincinnati, OH: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, HETA 88-001-1995, 1989 Nov ; :1-28
• CAS Registry Number:
  Carbon dioxide (CAS RN 124-38-9)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1990
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• NAICS and SIC Codes:
  8231 - Libraries - (SIC)
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d7118ab9894d5848ec4b914defdd0fd14c3aca4f23288be25109d0b93b7f9bef71805fea1e4ffe8efdcf181e649267617538f68291af15ae9d11c5eaf4fb7720
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/171794/cdc_171794_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.16 MB ]